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Gunfire and mortar rounds struck civilians attempting to escape Ukrainian cities over the weekend, killing both adults and children as they fled homes laid to waste by punishing Russian attacks. The mounting civilian deaths prompted new accusations that Russian forces are committing war crimes in Ukraine, after 11 days of an attack ordered by President Vladimir Putin that has destroyed apartment blocks and driven more than 1.5 million Ukrainians into neighbouring countries – the fastest-growing refugee crisis since the Second World War.

Hearings for an injunction on Russia’s invasion begin in the Hague on Monday. Ukraine is asking the International Court of Justice for an order to halt the invasion, saying Russia has falsely accused it of genocide to justify an illegal war. Ukraine brought its case under the UN’s 1948 Genocide Convention, which contains a provision for settling disputes at the ICJ over how the convention is interpreted and applied. Ukraine alleges Russia is misusing the convention – the world’s response to the mass murder of Jews and others during the Second World War – by claiming it as a pretext for its own attacks, which Ukraine describes in its legal filings as genocidal themselves.

Western allies, including the United States and Britain, are working on plans to transfer Polish fighter or ground-attack jets to Kyiv, in an attempt to prevent Russia from gaining total air superiority over Ukraine, reports The Globe’s Eric Reguly from Brussels. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed the plan was in the works while in Moldova, “We are looking actively now at the question of airplanes that Poland may provide to Ukraine and looking at how we might be able to backfill should Poland decide to supply those planes,” Blinken said. American- or European-built aircraft could not be transferred or sold to Ukraine because its pilots have no experience in flying them.

In the port city of Odesa, opera singers, perfumers and even the local yacht director have been feverishly preparing for Russia’s assault. Odesa, with its grand edifices on the Black Sea, has largely been spared from the aerial bombardments and artillery attacks that have turned streets in other Ukrainian cities to rubble, reports The Globe’s Nathan VanderKlippe. But on Sunday, the lengthy wail of air-raid sirens was followed by an announcement from the military that it had shot down a Russian aircraft near the city. Then came a grim warning from the country’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky: “They are preparing to bombard Odesa.”

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Local residents escape from the town of Irpin, after heavy shelling landed on the only escape route used by locals, as Russian troops advance toward the capital of Kyiv, March 6, 2022.CARLOS BARRIA/Reuters

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Ontario is running out of landfill space. Will it embrace the circular economy or sleepwalk into a crisis?: For all the recent talk of a circular economy, Ontario’s is more like a linear pipeline: Resources are extracted, used once, then disposed of. Long ago, it committed to diverting more refuse into recycling and reuse programs, but missed the mark widely.

Some businesses keeping COVID-19 rules despite changing measures: With vaccine passport requirements either already lifted or about to be done away with in most of the country in the coming weeks, businesses and organizations are facing decisions about whether to continue asking for proof of vaccination. For some, the fear of losing staff to illness is a major motivator for keeping the measure in place.

In the Maritimes, rent inflation is biting hard: Tenants across the Maritimes, particularly on Prince Edward Island, are getting hit with steep rent increases. In many ways, what’s happening is the dark side of a boom period that’s brought new blood to rapidly aging provinces.


MORNING MARKETS

Crude spikes, markets slump: Oil prices soared and global shares sank in frantic trading on Monday as the risk of a U.S. and European ban on Russian product and delays in Iranian talks triggered what was shaping up as a major stagflationary shock for world markets. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 1.53 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 fell 3.29 per cent and 3.35 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei lost 2.94 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 3.87 per cent. New York futures were sharply lower. The Canadian dollar was trading at 78.56 US cents.


WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Amid Putin’s war, Emmanuel Macron has become Europe’s indispensable leader

With a bloody war raging in Europe, the electoral battleground has suddenly shifted from the domestic domain to the continental sphere. The future of Europe is on the ballot in direct and tangible ways. The debate now revolves not around abstract concepts about the division of power in the European Union, but around which candidate can stand up to Russia’s aggression.” - Konrad Yakabuski

Being shy is a virtue, not a character flaw

“When someone speaks less, we assume there is something wrong with them. We don’t create space for people to think before they speak, we’re expected to answer quickly and immediately. And we don’t allow people to observe before joining in, everyone – children and adults – is expected to participate immediately, with no time to warm up.” - Annie Ridout


TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

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David Parkins/The Globe and Mail


LIVING BETTER

It’s a sizzling midwinter for book releases

Midwinter was once a dead zone for books – the hot titles all wanted to be out in fall to capitalize on the Christmas rush and the beach books would wait to publish in late spring. COVID seems to have changed the timing of all that with February and March having so many new and exciting books that it was difficult for writer Margaret Cannon to settle on these six.


MOMENT IN TIME: Baby Charles Lindbergh Jr. is kidnapped

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Charles Lindbergh, the baby son of the famous aviator, who was kidnapped and later found murdered.Keystone/Getty Images

For more than 100 years, photographers and photo editors working for The Globe and Mail have preserved an extraordinary collection of news photography. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. This month, we’re looking at historic kidnappings.

On the night of March 1, 1932, Charles Lindbergh’s first-born son was taken from his crib in the family’s New Jersey home. Five years earlier, Lindbergh made the first solo flight across the Atlantic. The kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby – and the bizarre series of ransom notes and negotiations that followed – drew worldwide attention. The famous aviator and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, made payments in exchange for information on the baby’s whereabouts, which turned out to be false. Charles Jr. was found dead two months later. It would be another two years before police traced the ransom money to Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German-born carpenter. After what was often described as the trial of the century, a jury found Hauptmann guilty of the baby’s murder, and he was executed by electric chair. Molly Hayes

Subscribers and registered users of globeandmail.com can dig deeper into our News Photo Archive at tgam.ca/newsphotoarchive


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